Official "This Day In History" thread

[kriesel]

Originally Posted by tServo

The meeting took 90 minutes.

There's a movie about that. "Conspiracy" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266425/ From their point of view, "best" meant high processing rates, at low cost. Vocabulary fails: appalling, disgusting, atrocious, etc seem inadequate.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by tServo

80 years ago, on Jan 20, 1942 Nazi Reinhard Heydrich hosted a meeting at a villa on Lake Wannsee, Germany to plan the Holocaust.

There was only one point on the agenda: “The organizational, logistical and material steps for a final solution of the Jewish question in Europe.”


The notes from the meeting showed they planned to kill 11,000,000 Jews.


The meeting took 90 minutes.

As SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor (Deputy/Acting Reich-Protector) of Bohemia and Moravia, Heydrich was a very important Nazi.

He was assassinated on 27 May 1942. His importance was reflected by the reprisals for his death, which included the destruction (based on false intelligence) of the villages of Lidice and Ležáky.

Also at the meeting was a capable underling, Adolf Eichmann.

He survived the war and escaped Allied custody, getting as far as Argentina before being captured by the Mossad in 1960.

He was brought to Israel, tried for war crimes, convicted, and sentenced to death. (His argument "I was only following orders" was unpersuasive.)

He was hanged in 1962.

[PhilF]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

His importance was reflected by the reprisals for his death, which included the destruction (based on false intelligence) of the villages of Lidice and Ležáky.

If those are the villages I'm thinking of, they didn't just destroy them. They rounded up all the men and boys over 12, marched them to a nearby hill, then machine gunned them in the legs to immobilize them. They then poured gasoline over them and burned them to death.

After that, if I'm not confusing my atrocities, I think they herded all the women and children into a church and a few barns in the middle of town then burned them to the ground. Then they burned all the other structures to the ground.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by PhilF

If those are the villages I'm thinking of, they didn't just destroy them. They rounded up all the men and boys over 12, marched them to a nearby hill, then machine gunned them in the legs to immobilize them. They then poured gasoline over them and burned them to death.

After that, if I'm not confusing my atrocities, I think they herded all the women and children into a church and a few barns in the middle of town then burned them to the ground. Then they burned all the other structures to the ground.

Some of this sounds like the atrocity at Oradour-sur-Glane, described in this post. I subsequently re-learned something I had long since forgotten: A description of this atrocity is the opening scene of the WWII documentary, The World at War. The narrator was Sir Lawrence Olivier.

The men of Lidice were shot, while the women and most of the children were sent to extermination camps. Some of the very youngest were sent to Germany for "re-education."

EDIT: The first installment of of The World at War is on YouTube here. The opening scene takes less than two minutes.

[Dr Sardonicus]

February 1

1865 Illinois becomes the first State to ratify the 13th Amendment

2022 Lunar New Year Ren-Yin (Heavenly stem Ren = Yang, Water; Earthly branch Yin = Tiger)

[Dr Sardonicus]

February 2

Candlemas, and Groundhog Day in the United States. It is at or near halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox.

1653 New Amsterdam becomes a city (later renamed New York)

1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican–American War: US acquires Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona for $15 million

1892 Bottle cap patented by William Painter

1943 German 6th Army surrenders after Battle of Stalingrad in a major turning point in Europe during World War II

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

February 2

Candlemas, and Groundhog Day in the United States. It is at or near halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox.

That is what is known as a cross-quarter day.

[Dr Sardonicus]

February 6

1778 France recognizes USA, signs Treaty of Alliance in Paris, 1st US treaty. This was after the Battle of Saratoga, in which the army under British General John "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne surrendered and was taken prisoner. This major military victory convinced the French that the colonists had a real chance of winning.

1894 Bottle opener patented by William Painter. He thus was able to profit doubly from his invention of the bottle cap (patented February 2, 1892)

1904 Japan notifies Russia that in view of Russia's delaying tactics and provocative military action, Japan is ending negotiations and recalling its members from Moscow. The Russo-Japanese War soon followed. The war ended after a treaty was brokered by US President Theodore Roosevelt. This earned him the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize.

1918 Great Britain grants women (30 & over) the vote

2020 Date of the 1st COVID-19 related death in the US (confirmed by the CDC April 21)

[storm5510]

February 6

Queen Elizabeth II ascends to the throne in 1952. 70 years ago today.

[retina]

Originally Posted by kriesel

(Retina: how many mercenaries would it take? Barbados has no air force and ~300,000 population total. Might make a great lair. But beware of alliances with larger powers.)

For a good bit of evil one shouldn't be sending in expensive mercenaries for a long messy battle. Much better is to threaten with some form of awesome overly-complicated super-weapon, and subjugate for a much lower cost, and maybe make a profit from the collected ransom, and the local infrastructure will still be intact. Then it becomes their "choice" to cooperate and the new influx of minions are much more manageable.

This is part of the evil doer master class. Prices start at two minions per semester. Or if you can't afford that then for the lesser course of basic oligarch proficiency, the cost reduces to one minion that you must take off my hands each semester.

[tServo]

Feb 8, 1974: Skylab's last crew leaves.
This was only the third crew to visit the space station.
Increased sunspot activity doomed the lab to de-orbit in 1979.